Azure Eyes
by Riley Jordan
Summary: Yukimura was a typical seven year old, living on the run from the Hidden Sand with her mother in the Hidden Mist, but her fate had other plans. When her village is attacked by the mythological Snow Mountain Wolf, is it her demise or her destiny calling? Rated T for later language.
1. Prologue

A weird noise awoke the sleeping child. She stumbled out of her bed and in a tired daze, wandered to the window. She thought of a few things as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Gramps and Gran weren't related to her, yet they treated her like family. Maybe waking her up at the crack of dawn was the way they treated family in this foreign village. She turned her head back to the window and looked out to a dark sky. It wasn't dawn after all.

She scanned the horizon for something that could have made that noise. Lights flickered on in other houses. They must've been awoken by the noise too. She kept searching. Another noise boomed, only this time she could have sworn that the house shook with it. Her door flew open and an older version of herself entered. The woman had apple green eyes and soft blonde hair. She wore a worried expression as she gathered a knapsack of clothes. The last time she had done this was the time when they left the Hidden Sand.

The child turned back to the window, as if to take in a last glimpse of this temporary home. Instead she looked upon a glowing white figure. It was at least as big as the Mizukage's office, if not bigger. Ten tails danced around uncontrollably. It seemed to be fighting something.

The woman muttered something louder than she wanted to, "Why here? Why now? Can that man not leave us alone?"

"That man," it was a phrase commonly used when the child's mother spoke of her biological father. She didn't understand why her mother harbored such feelings toward her father, but all she knew about him was, "he's a really bad man." But just how bad was "bad?" Was it rotten sushi bad, or was it evil bad? She didn't know, and no one bothered to tell her.

Gran ran into the room. "Eri, we need to leave now. It's getting too close."

The girl's mother sighed and ran toward her. "Hikari, I need you to take this and get as far away from here as possible. Can you do that for mommy?"

The girl nodded, but she didn't understand. How far was "far away?" They were surrounded by water, but she knew better than to argue. Mother was in her shinobi clothes which meant that she was going to fight. She grabbed the bag that her mother had packed and ran. She got to the outside door when she felt it, the sudden urge to disappear. She ran, and ran, not looking back. The terror began as soon as she got to the Mizukage's office.

She could hear the sounds of panic and destruction, but she kept her eyes forward. She was still running when she heard it. "My baby!"

This was typical of a situation as dire as this. She couldn't keep running. She turned and saw just how terrible the village looked. She saw the woman in terror and, as if in slow motion, dove for the carriage. Her seven year old body wasn't trained for actions such as this, but her adrenaline told her mind just what to tell her body to do. She leapt over the carriage and grabbed the crying child just as the house to her right was destroyed by the towering step of a monster.

She felt the wood pierce her leg, but that wouldn't stop her descent. She landed and stood just the same, not bothering to pull out the massive sliver. The woman was dead. A metal fork meant for embers in a fire was embedded in her chest. Hikari adjusted the crying baggage and resumed running. Explosions quickly froze as the temperature descended. Snow began falling in the middle of this crisis. She limped badly as her leg began to bleed uncontrollably. She reached in her bag and pulled out a shirt. She stopped for a moment and put the baby down. She tore up the shirt and wrapped it around the object protruding from her leg.

With her leg bandaged, Hikari grabbed the child and began running once again. She saw a boatman and yelled for his attention. Even in the commotion he heeded her call.

"Take this child with you." She begged.

He looked at the sobbing babe and nodded. Then he assessed the damage that Hikari had taken. "You need a doctor."

"Just get the baby OUT OF HERE!" She commanded. "I'll be fine, no go." A command given by a seven year old had never been followed so quickly before or again.

Hikari dropped as the boatman ran for the docks. She had lost a fair amount of blood, and she was quickly fading. She laid down in the rubble and looked up. The white figure caught her eye once more. It was a wolf, her favorite animal. It was if in her dying moments, someone wanted her to smile, something in which she had never done before. The wolf looked down and made eye contact. Hikari looked into its deep azure eye and smiled her first and last smile.

Hikari woke in the rubble of the village she had once called home. She stood and looked around. She strained to remember the last few moments. She remembered a noise and then her mother came in yelling. That's right! She was supposed to be dead! She looked at her hands. They were definitely there, but something was off. There was writing all over her arm. "Seal" over and over again. She took a moment to process this.

After she decided that there was no possible way that any of her questions could be answered at this time, she began wandering the remains of the village. The Mizukage's office was still standing but not much else. She still wandered. She felt compelled toward one place. Her senses said "go," but her conscience said, "Turn away now." Soon she wished she had listened to her conscience. Her mother laid in a pile of wood gasping for breath.

"Hi—Hikari? Wh—What are you -?" She stopped due to a sudden spike in pain.

"Mommy? You'll be okay right? You won't be like daddy, right?" The memory of her father's cruel murder was vivid in her mind. She had watched her father die, two years ago. The trauma alone was enough to make her smile disappear.

"I don't know sweetie." The older blonde gasped.

Hikari began crying. "I don't want to be alone."

"Be brave," her mother said quickly. "You are my little trooper, remember? You are my Hi-." Her words trailed off. Hikari's last living relative, to her knowledge, had just died in front of her eyes.

Hikari sat down next to her dead mother. Her tears stopped flowing soon as she sat there pondering what to do next. Her first thought was to commit suicide, which was harshly thrown into the trash bin. Her next idea was almost as insane, go home. She didn't mean search through the rubble until she found her Gramps and Gran's house. She meant, go home, back to the Hidden Sand.

How long had Hikari been walking. She found a small boat and had rowed all the way back to the other shore. She then filled her small canteen and began walking. She felt lost in the huge forest. A few times she could have sworn that she had seen a wall, but she convinced herself it was just a hallucination. Later she finally found sand and thus began her journey to the Sand.

She began having conversations with the voice in her head who told her to call it Ookami-san. At first she thought she was going insane, but she soon found that it was in fact the same monster that had attacked the village. It had decided to spare her because she was the first human to smile at it, even in the face of death. It was hard to believe that a monster as big as Ookami-san was able to smash itself into a seven year old.

Ookami-san was helpful in the fact that it was an ice type demon and it could create water in this heat. It taught her the hand signs to make an icicle and then Hikari could munch on it as she walked. Hikari also found that her body temperature had dropped by nearly twenty degrees and any higher was deadly. This walk was getting very informative. Soon she found a large sand castle, or so she thought. It was actually the gate to the Hidden Sand. She wandered around to the entrance and spoke with the guards. They were actually quite reasonable when you spoke like a little kid that was just lost.

Now that she was in the village it was near sunset. She kept walking, never had she ever done this much walking in one day. She found a small park with a swing set and sat down. She began looking around and surveying the surrounding area. She looked at a group of kids about her age and older playing with a leather ball. One kicked it too high, and it got caught on a ledge. Just as they turned to walk away, a small sand storm brought the ball into the hands of a small red headed kid. He couldn't have been any older than Hikari. She thought that this act was sweet, but the other children seemed scared.

She stood. Ookami-san was prompting her forward. He began to get angry. The sand seemed to react to his emotions. Hikari grabbed his arm and grabbed the ball. She threw it at the terrified children.

"Play nice or don't play at all." She said defiantly. "He was just being nice, and you guys treated him like a monster."

"He is a monster!" A child yelled.

"Then I'm going to play with a monster. Come on, they don't understand what they're missing." Hikari continued holding the boy's wrist and pulled him to the swings. She maneuvered him in order to make him sit on the swing. She then pulled on the ropes and proceeded pushing him.

"They're right you know." The boy said shyly.

"Right about what?" Hikari pouted.

"I am a monster."

"Really? I just see a boy who needs a friend. I see someone like me."

"I doubt that."

She stopped the swing, and walked around to the other side. "Take a closer look dummy. We may be more similar than you might think."

The boy looked at her arms and his eyes widened. "You've got a monster in you too?"

"I don't call it a monster; I call it Ookami-san. It's a lot nicer than you may think, and if you learn how to control your demon's power, maybe it will understand just how nice you are, erm…"

"Gaara."

"Gaara, I'm Hikari, Yukimura Hikari."

"Do you really mean it?"

"Mean what?"

"That I'm nice?" He seemed shyer than any time before that moment.

"Only kind people can be shy. That's what my Gran always told me."

The boy didn't know what to say. He didn't have a chance anyway. After Hikari said her philosophy someone called for Gaara. He jumped off the swing.

"Will I see you again?"

"I don't know."

"Then here." He held out a bag on a necklace. "I'm Gaara of the Sand, I control sand. In this bag is a little bit of sand with my chakra infused in it. If it becomes heavy, I'm dead."

Hikari took the bag and put it around her neck. She then grabbed Gaara's hand. She blew on it creating a pendant of ice. "This will only melt when I die. This way we can know that the other is alive and well." She then smiled for the second time. Hikari finally knew her character. She wasn't the emotionless girl of the Hidden Mist. She was the happy girl of the Hidden Sand, Yukimura Hikari.


	2. Ramen Buddies

A heavy bag jingled with forehead protectors of different villages. Fourteen years old, seven years, and still a genin… The blonde haired teenager adjusted her olive gloves. They reached up her bicep, hugging tightly to her toned arms, covering her secret. She looked into the still water of a small puddle from the recent rain as a mirror, fixing the fly away hairs and preparing to set off on yet another day of travel.

She had been searching for the Hidden Leaf for ages now and was beginning to lose faith. It _had_ to be somewhere in the forest, right? It wasn't just called the Hidden Leaf for nothing, right? Although… It was called _Hidden_ Leaf…

Her stomach roared in protest.

"Man food sounds really good right about now," she said to herself, hoping no one else was around to hear her hungered insanity. "More specifically, ramen. Ramen sounds divine."

Her mind swam with the thought of perfectly edible, wavy noodles swimming in the broth of heaven mixed with vegetables and flavors given to humans by the gods for their enjoyment. She wiped her mouth of drool and resigned herself to the long journey to the village that awaited her.

Her bag seemed to grow heavier with every step.

"WHYYYYYYY!?" She screamed in defeat. "Why do I not have a sense of direction!?"

She threw her fist at a wall nearby and reeled back in agony.

"Stupid wall! Wait…." She stared at the towering wall, half confused, half irritated. "Wall?"

Her eyes grew wide as she realized she had found the village at long last. She dropped to her knees with tears of joy streaming down her face. She was so happy to see the tan slab she could kiss it, but her feet lifted her. With the wall in front of her, the promise of food was even more real.

"Ramen!" She ran screaming in the direction, she hoped, of the entrance.

The entrance was in the other direction…

She stumbled to the entrance where a dopey looking blond with whiskers on his face stood, obviously waiting for someone to train with. He stared at her with intent eyes, trying to decide if she was an enemy or a wanderer. He saw her mouth move, but couldn't quite make out what she said. He leaned closer.

"Fooooooooood," she moaned. "Raaameeeen!"

The boy in the orange jumpsuit lit up at the sound of ramen.

The girl lifted an arm and grabbed the boy's collar, pulling him close.

"Where's the nearest and best ramen stand in town, kid." She growled, almost as loud as her stomach.

"Never fear, Naruto is here!" He exclaimed, grabbing the girl and charging to his go to ramen shop, Ichiraku.

Eighteen bowls of ramen later, the girl patted her stomach and let out a sigh of relief, finally stopping to breathe.

"That was amazing, Ossan!" She praised.

"I'm glad you liked it," the owner smiled. His wrinkles were oddly fitting, rather than making him look old, they made him seem… happy.

"You've definitely gained another regular customer," she smiled in return, paying and standing.

The orange jumpsuit boy was waiting for her to finish her meal before inquiring about her.

"Thanks, bud, you really saved my skin," she sighed, patting the boy's shoulders.

"You're welcome; we're fellow fans of ramen after all." He held a thumb up, indicating it was good.

"So, erm…"

"Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto," he offered.

"Naruto, I've noticed other village forehead protectors bobbing around in the crowd. Is something happening?"

The blond suddenly became very serious; his eyes full of determination, and answered, "The Chuunin Exams."

"Chuunin?" The girl cocked her head to one side. "Oh! Like an advancement tournament!"

"Exactly, erm…"

"Hikari, Yukimura Hikari," she introduced herself.

Naruto took a moment to memorize her appearance, as to connect the name with a face for their next encounter.

Her sour apple green eyes were large and happy as she introduced herself. Her blonde hair was layered and medium length. She wore a turtleneck shirt without sleeves, but wore olive gloves that stretched up to her bicep. Her pants were tan and only came to mid-calf, with the typical navy blue sandals he was used to seeing on ninja.

She wasn't wearing a forehead protector, so he was confused. Was she a ninja or not?

"What is it exactly that brought you to the Leaf if it's not the Chuunin Exams?" Naruto asked the question, finally.

"Oh, right!" She exclaimed as if she had forgotten something important. "Where's the Hokage?"

"San-daime?" Naruto asked.

"Sure…"

"He should be in his office."

"Which would be…?"

Naruto merely pointed at the largest building in the village.

"I should have guessed," Hikari whistled.


	3. Signed, Orochimaru

Hikari said her farewells to her new ramen buddy as she navigated her way through the enlarged crowd. Curse major ninja events, they were almost as bad as major sporting events. People crowded shops and pushed their way through the river of bodies to make their way to their destinations, and Hikari was not immune.

The blonde haired girl eventually grew tired with the pushing and shoving and bruising and maiming she had caught herself in. She jumped, zigzagging her way to the roof tops. From here, she could see the landscape of the Hidden Leaf. The many small buildings were tightly packed, and the streets were even more so.

Eventually, her perch was no longer needed as she continued her way to the Hokage's office. She landed near the entrance of the large building and entered. People were scrambling, trying to stay organized for the Exams. A lone secretary sat at a desk in front.

"May I help you?" She smiled her secretary smile, which usually meant trouble, or an appointment was necessary to even get in.

"Ah, yeah…" Hikari responded intelligently, taking in her surroundings. "I'm looking for the Hokage's office?"

"Ah, yes, top floor, first door to your left," she gestured, as if that would somehow help the lost girl.

Hikari wasn't entirely sure why it was necessary for the gestures, but she just nodded and made her way to the stairs.

_Stairs have got to be the worst invention known to man,_ she thought begrudgingly. _How about something that you can just stand on?_

She eventually made it to the top floor, after wishing she were born in an alternate universe that had moving stairs, and found the first door to the left.

She knocked.

"Enter!" She heard through the thin door.

She put a hand to the cold metal knob and turned. The slab of wood opened revealing an older man in a white robe. There was another man in the room, only he seemed skinnier and more obnoxious. He wore tiny rimmed sunglasses and all black. He must have been dying from the heat.

"Ah," the old man sighed. "I don't believe I have seen you before."

"I wouldn't expect for you to have, I have only just recently arrived," she explained. "I have this note."

She slipped her backpack off and dug for an envelope. The strip of paper was exchanged and the Hokage noticed a seal.

"Ebisu-san," the man next to the Hokage stiffened in attention. "Could you leave us for a moment?"

"Ha?" The man questioned.

"Just for a moment," the Hokage reassured.

The man simply bowed and exited the room, leaving Hikari with the Hokage.

The elder pulled the paper out and began to read. His eyes widened when he read the names written on the bottom for verification.

"Orochimaru?!" He exclaimed.

"Excellent teacher, very strict, and despite how much I dislike him I am bound to secrecy," Hikari sighed.

The elder set the page down on his desk and stared for a moment.

"What rank are you?"

"Genin, sir."

"If you had gotten here a week earlier, you would have qualified for the Chuunin Exams," he informed.

Hikari merely smiled, as if hiding something. "I'm doing fine as a Genin, sir."

The paper was refolded and slipped back into its sleeve.

"Prove to me that you are of some worth to the Hidden Leaf," the Hokage formally commanded.

Hikari raised her hands and signed, shouting, "Yuki Ona no jutsu!"

Snow began to pile, creating a perfect replica of Hikari. Eventually color began to stain the surface of the snow, completing the façade of the original. A kunai was thrown, embedding itself in the clone.

The jutsu simply looked down and pulled the knife out.

"Ow…?" It questioned.

The elder smirked, nodding his head.

"Definitely of worth to the Hidden Leaf."


	4. Rumors and Letters

Hikari wandered back to the fresh air and crowded village. She would have to wait until the Chuunin Exams were over before she could be assigned a team… if she even stayed that long. She thought back to her most treasured time in the sand, meeting the boy who changed her view of demon hosts. She hadn't thought that they may have been treated badly, or ignored.

_"Kari?"_ Hikari was used to this voice, the thought that was not her own.

_Ookami-san?_ She responded.

"_Was it really wise to come to this village? After all, you were a disciple of Orochimaru for a few months…"_

_Yeah, I realize it may not have been the wisest of all decisions, but there's a reason I need to be here. I'm just not sure what that reason is quite yet._

"_Whatever you say, Kari."_

Hikari had a nagging feeling to come to the Hidden Leaf ever since she was in Orochimaru's legion. Sound ninja were of the most ruthless she had ever met in her years of travel. Friend to every village, ally to none.

She soon found herself wandering around the village, eyes attracted to anything colorful or shiny. She enjoyed listening to the gossip of the Exams so far. Seemed the town favorite was some kid named Uchiha Sasuke, as he was the lone survivor of the Uchiha clan massacre years before. She felt bad for him, knowing what it was like to see a loved one die, especially all a person had.

However, they spoke of a name that gave Hikari déjà vu, Gaara of the Sand. She felt a weird tug around my neck when they mentioned him. They said he was to be feared, as he was easily the most dangerous of the Exams.

Now that it was brought to her attention, the whole town was buzzing with excitement and anticipation as it seemed the fight was between Uchiha-san and Gaara-san quickly approached. It was only in a few days, in fact. Hikari couldn't help but feel her stomach flip over as they spoke of the confrontation.

Something wasn't right. She knew the Sound was mobilizing, and got the hell out before she was dragged in to any direct village against village battle. It went against her instructions.

"Respective Kage-sama," she recalled her letter saying. "Please allow Yukimura Hikari passage into your village. Having passed the hardships of the Hidden Steel's ninja academy, she has proven herself to be a very level headed young woman. However, there is a secret buried inside of the lovely girl. The Mythological Snow Mountain Wolf exists, within her body. She is a demon host, but her status as such must be kept as a topmost secret. The other nine hosts live with the knowledge that they were chosen to be a body in which the chakra of the beasts were sealed into without consent. Hikari's situation is slightly different…"

Her fantasy was broken by the sound of practice: hard breathing and shouts of jutsus.

"Chidori!" Came the unknown voice once more.

She felt her feet follow the sounds of training.

She peered behind a tree; normally she would have gone unnoticed, if it weren't for the new Hidden Leaf forehead protector's glare.

A kunai was sent flying. Hikari brought a hand up with inhuman speed, catching the knife's finger-hold and flipping it around, making it her weapon in seconds.

"Nice aim," she complimented, stepping out of the shadows and leaning on the tree in plain view. The boy had red eyes with apostrophes floating around the pupils. She recognized them to be sharingan, a blood line limit exclusive to the Uchiha Clan. "You must be Uchiha-san."


End file.
